How do I get SOC 2 without hiring a compliance team?
March 6, 20262 min readSOC 2 Cost and Budget
Can You Get SOC 2 Without Compliance Hires?
Yes. Most startups that get SOC 2 do not have a dedicated compliance person. The work is distributed across existing team members — typically the CTO, engineering lead, and an operations person. What you need is not compliance expertise. You need documentation of what you already do.
How to Distribute Ownership
| Control Area | Who Owns It | What They Do |
|---|---|---|
| Access management | CTO or Engineering Lead | Manage IdP, run access reviews, handle onboarding/offboarding |
| Change management | Engineering Lead | Enforce PR reviews, maintain branch protection, document deployments |
| Incident response | On-call engineer | Document incident procedures, respond to and log incidents |
| Risk management | CTO | Maintain risk register, conduct annual risk assessment |
| Vendor management | Operations / Finance | Evaluate vendors, collect SOC 2 reports from sub-processors |
| Policy ownership | CTO | Approve and review policies annually |
The Workflow
- AI tool generates your policies — Connect your codebase and infrastructure, get policies that reflect your actual setup
- Assign each policy to an owner — They review for accuracy and sign off
- Each owner collects evidence for their area — Screenshots, exports, records
- CTO coordinates with the auditor — Schedules walkthroughs, submits evidence
- Team participates in audit walkthroughs — Each owner explains their controls
What Changes in Your Day-to-Day?
Very little. The most common additions:
- Quarterly access reviews — 1–2 hours per quarter
- Documenting incidents — You already respond to incidents; now write them down
- Policy review — Read your policies once a year and confirm they are current
The Minimum Team for SOC 2
You need at least two people involved to satisfy segregation of duties requirements. One person cannot both approve and implement changes. At a 5-person startup, the CEO and CTO can cover all control areas between them.
Screenata acts as your virtual compliance team — writing policies, collecting evidence, and guiding you through the audit process so your existing team spends minimal time on compliance.